_ 109 _ others in Persia, apart from the King’s houses and a few mosques built in brick. It lies at thirty-six degrees. Its noble character is mainly due to the court of Shah Tamás, which retreated here from Tabriz, where the kings who were his ancestors always lived. This was to escape from the Turk, against whom there was no defence. The Turk had already taken from him many lands in both Armenias and in Babylonia as far as Aleppo. All this was ruled by Shah Ishmael. We travelled for two further days towards the north and on the third we arrived in a place called Sagziabad. It is encircled by many plantations and orchards and has mud and wattle-and-daub houses like the others. It is situated to the east-north-east [of the road] and has a large river. It is peopled by Persians. On 25th of the month we left here and arrived early in the morning at Kiam. Item: Kiam: This is a larger place than the last one, situated to the east-south-east and well- peopled by similar inhabitants. It has great plains. It lives from cultivation and selling crops. It is situated on a hill so round that from outside it looks like a fine castle. It has good wattle- and-daub houses with windows and flat roofs the Moors do not use tiled roofs. Along the whole road up to this point there are great cotton-fields, and from here great
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